Rock Regeneration

Nov16

Queens of the Stone Age/The Chats/Deep Tan

on November 16th, 2023 at 18:58

Bournemouth International Centre

Due to the rescheduled Nothing But Thieves gig the night before, it was back up the M27 for me again, this time to meet with my brother. A few months before he had messaged me cryptically asking if I worked Thursdays and finally revealed the reason, he had bought me Queens of the Stone Age tickets for my birthday. It was excellent timing as my expensive hobby of attending gigs and festivals was beginning to take its toll on my bank balance. My brother was certainly instrumental in shaping my music taste with our mutual love of heavy guitar riffs often forming the central topic of conversation for us. I found myself back in the Elevate bar for a quick half a pint of shandy and to continue our conversation. We then found our seats, a marked improvement on the far-off view from the night before and settled in for some live music.

Deep Tan came on at 7.15pm. They were a female fronted three piece – the guitarist and bassist wearing skimpy black outfits – and a male drummer. My brother turned to me and stated that he was not convinced. I agreed – I was underwhelmed. Deep Tan were not really my thing. They had twangling guitars and were a bit experimental relying on long instrumental sections of their songs. They sounded a little reminiscent of early 90s female fronted bands like Belly and The Breeders just not as good. “Hi. We’re Deep Tan. How’re you doing?” A brief introduction came breathlessly over the mic but that was the only real interaction. One song was just morphing into the next. My brother wasn’t impressed stating that, “she’s not even singing, just playing the same chords over again and the drummer is playing the same rhythm.” When they left the stage, he even said, “Yep, go off and practice more.” I have been extremely fortunate with the support bands I had seen this year but with Deep Tan – that run of luck had ended.

Deep Tan

The Chats arrived at 7.55pm. They are a fun three piece from Queensland, Australia. Jumping on to stage, they introduced themselves straight away. Self-deprecatingly admitting that, “Unfortunately you are going have to sit through a bunch of our songs before you see Queens of the Stone Age.” They were definitely a lot louder and exciting than the previous offering. Fast paced, exciting, punk guitar playing and adopting the wide legged stances expected of a three-piece punk band. The lead singing yelling lyrics in a strong Aussie accent and enjoying some interaction with the crowd. “This next song is about a car” I began to settle in and enjoy The Chats smiling and nodding my head. The crowd below were getting involved too with the occasional circle pit swirling around. The Chats reminded me of some of the early 90s punk bands like Rancid. My brother turned to me, “So have you managed to pick out any lyrics yet?” Compared to what I had previously listened to, when I researched who the support bands were, The Chats had definitely turned up the pace on most of their songs, clearly trying to cram in as much as they could into their 35-minute set. Unfortunately, this led to the short, sharp songs sounding much the same as the set reached its end.

The Chats

We were now really looking forward to what Queens of the Stone Age had to offer as the entertainment from both support bands was rather disappointing. A quick trip to the toilet, to find a queue for the men’s but not the ladies, I had experienced this before with Royal Blood, but it still never fails to leave the women feeling triumphant and enjoying the brief moment of hilarity. I returned to my seat to question my brother about his die happy song choice. Essentially, this morbid question of mine, to anyone watching with me, is the one song that you would absolutely love to see that band playing live. His response was, “No One Knows”.

The stage was plunged into darkness and intense cheering began to build as Queens of the Stone Age entered. The opening bars to “No One Knows” boomed into the auditorium. My brother was very happy, the whole crowd were pogoing, the seats of the balcony were jumping. Queens of the Stone Age had arrived! A golden pyramid of light surrounding the band showed us what professionals they were. Then Josh Homme, an air of cool brimming through every inch of him began to point at members of the audience stating: “I love you dancing baby, We came here to have a good time. Let me see you jiggle”. I waited for each track with anticipation, this was a set filled with tunes spanning the whole of their career. The excellent track from the album “Like Clockwork”, “My God is the Sun” played. Josh then shyly said, “I don’t have much to say. I just want to dance around”. Josh’s confidence clearly grew as he looked over the massive sell out audience – his eyes suddenly fixated on someone towards the front, this was when you realised that Josh Homme is an incredibly entertaining and funny front man, whilst also making everyone welcome and feel like family to him. “I’d like to thank my grandfather for coming, I’m a dirty little bitch grandpa”.

Queens Of The Stone Age 1

When the super sexy, “Make It Wit Chu” played, Josh encouraged the huge crowd to sing the lyrics back to him. His soft Californian tones then spread over the crowd once again. This time wondering, “Who here is from Bournemouth?” He began playing around with different pronunciations and quipped, “You are born in my mouth”. Next, he introduced the band ending with, “My name is Joshua and I fucking love this”. The main set finished up with, “Little Sister”. Then when the band re-entered for the encore with Josh moving close towards the mic and gleefully whispering, “For the next hour I would like to read you some of my personal poetry”. Next the opening bars of “Go with the Flow” started and Josh had the crowd eating out of his hand with a massive circle pit forming and the rest of the venue had got to their feet. This amazing set ended with an awesome rendition of “Songs for the Deaf” and an impressive extended drum solo. I was so grateful to have had the opportunity to be there and witness the amazing show that this band had put on – clearly the rest of the crowd were impressed too. My love for this band had been properly re-ignited.

Queens of the Stone Age
No One Knows
The Lost Art of Keeping a Secret
Monsters in the Parasol
Smooth Sailing
My God is in Sun
Emotion Sickness
If I had a Tail
Time and Place
Carnavoyeur
The Way You Used to Do
I Think I Lost my Headache
Sick, Sick, Sick
Make It Wit Chu
Little Sister

Encore
Go With the Flow
A Song for the Dead

The Chats
Nambored
Billy Backwash’s Day
Dead on Site
6L GTR
Ross River
Emperor of the Beach
Out on the Street
Casualty
Nazi March
Panic Attack
Temperature
Ticket Inspector
Struck by Lightening
Identity Theft
Smoko
Better Than You
Pub Feed